We’re Biden our time until Joe runs for President

At a moment in history where we are searching not just for great leaders but great humans, I offer as a shining example former Vice-President Joe Biden.

I read his new memoir this weekend, “Promise Me, Dad,” and it is hard to come away from this poignant book with anything but admiration and respect for Biden — the politician, the father, the family man. The great American.

Biden has been on the national stage for four decades and like all humans, he has had his gaffes and mistakes — there was the plagiarism of a British leaders speech and his tone deafness at the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings in the early 1990s.

But his few missteps are overshadowed by his stellar public service career — his bold support for gay marriage, before his boss, Barack Obama, signed on, was a watershed moment in our civil rights history.

Biden is a Democrat who has a worked both sides of the aisle — his early career in the Senate came during an era when Democrats and Republicans occasionally united to ratify legislation that truly helped America’s middle class.

Biden is as blue-collar a guy as you’ll meet in Washington. His middle class, Scranton, Pennsylvania roots him the life experience to really empathize with the hurting workers of our country. He is well know as “good old Joe Biden,” a regular guy who everybody would feel comfortable grabbing a beer with.

In the book, Biden recounts the scene when candidate Barack Obama told his running mate pick that he passed the vice-presidential vetting process.

“That was the easiest vetting I ever saw,” said Obama incredulously. “You don’t own anything.”

Biden readily admits that he’s a demographic anomaly in today’s American politics — he owns a modest home in Delaware but has no stocks or bonds. He and his former school teacher wife will rely on their pensions in retirement — like millions of Americans.

But we should all hope that Biden doesn’t retire for at least seven more years — he is the Democratic Party’s best hope to reclaim the White House in 2020.

I fear that Biden will then experience what the last two Democratic Presidents did: Cleaning up the mess created by their Republican predecessors. In 2008, Obama-Biden saved the country — and the global financial system — from going off a cliff. The Bush-Cheney regime couldn’t have messed things up more — two expensive and unwinnable wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) as well as a cratering Wall Street. The de-regulation of our financial system coupled with regressive tax cuts allowed the financial sector to take risks that nearly destroyed the global financial system.

Sound familiar?

Biden is a diplomatic man who can help bridge our divide nationally and with our adversaries around the world. He’s tough, experienced, and supremely empathic — qualities we sorely need from our President.

Biden has weathered a lot of heartbreak in his life and his perseverance and stoicism is truly heroic. Forty years ago, as a rookie legislator in Washington, he received news on the floor of Congress that his young wife and daughter were killed in a car crash right before Christmas. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, survived but the newly widowed father had to nurse them back to health alone.

He eventually recovered from this indescribable heartbreak and started a new family. His sons went on to impressive careers in both the military and public service — in fact, Beau, served as attorney general of Delaware and was on his way to becoming governor back in 2014.

But then tragedy struck Biden again: Beau was diagnosed with a lethal brain cancer and his father had to once again put family before country. Despite his dying son’s plea for his dad to run for president, Biden decided that he needed to focus on his extended family — including his grandchildren in this sorrowful period after his beloved son’s death.

It is painful to contemplate what might have happened if Beau Biden hadn’t become ill. We probably would have a President Joe Biden in the White House now and the whole picture of America would be more optimistic.

But in politics, as in life, there is always tomorrow and the next campaign.

Here’s hoping that Joe Biden this time can heed his late son’s call to duty.

Run, Joe, run.

Tom Allon, president of City & State NY, was a Republican and Liberal Party-backed mayoral candidate in 2013 before he left to return to the private sector. Reach him at tallon@cityandstateny.com.

Reasonable discourse

Henry Ford from Bay Ridge says:

The #metoo posts about our handsy former VP should be coming out any day now. Forget Biden, he is toast.

Nov. 26, 2017, 12:23 pm

wapo reader says:

Mr. Allon's column was published two days after one in the Washington Post titled, "Time to take baby boomers off the ticket." David Von Drehle compares the ages of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the two Roosevelts with those of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The four former presidents had an average age under 50 when they took office. The potential 2020 Democratic Party candidates will have an average age of 76 on January 20, 2021. You can tell by the title of the editorial what Mr. Von Drehle (age 56, for the record) thinks of that.

Nov. 26, 2017, 12:38 pm

Truth says:

Joseph Biden = Joseph Stalin

Nov. 26, 2017, 3:54 pm

Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville, NY says:

Although I do vote Democrat, I would rather it not be Joe Biden doing it in 2020, plus I'm not even sure if he will still be alive by then.

Nov. 26, 2017, 5:01 pm

Joe from Clinton Hill says:

How quickly we forget. I watched the Clarence Thomas hearings and would never vote for Joe Biden, no matter who he was running against. The way he treated Anita Hill was reprehensible; and Biden was one of those responsible for putting Thomas on the Supreme Court. Nuff said. He's too old, too sexist, and too full of himself. The Washington Post was right about the age issue, as well. Time to see if the next generation can do better than mine did. Wouldn't take much.

Nov. 26, 2017, 9:20 pm

Mike The Expert on Everything from Brooklyn Heights says:

Biden is part of the same old broken valeeses we keep getting. Its time for a fresh face like Al Gore

Nov. 27, 2017, 2:15 am

Petey from Sunset park says:

Mr Allon-Thanks. I needed a good laugh today and you provided one!!!

Nov. 27, 2017, 11:16 am

Henry Ford from Bay Ridge says:

Gonna be hard for the Dems to field a candidate, considering so many of them will be in jail by 2020. If not hung for treason.

Nov. 27, 2017, 11:49 am

Homey from Crooklyn says:

LOL another busted down old fart

Nov. 27, 2017, 1:44 pm

Rufus Leaking from BH says:

Bring on Slow Joe!

Nov. 27, 2017, 4:01 pm

Thomas Hilton from Bay Ridge says:

I cannot believe that in 2013 I took TOM ALLON seriously as a mayoralty candidate at the Brownstone Club. What an idiot. Both of them.

Nov. 27, 2017, 7:54 pm

Rufus Leaking from BH says:

Tal votes democrat, and then complains when they try to put bike lanes everywhere and take away parking.

Look up "Agenda 21" Tal - keep voting for your own destruction.

Nov. 28, 2017, 3:19 pm

Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville, NY says:

Rufus, my position on the bike lanes has absolutely nothing to do with where I stand on the political spectrum, plus there might be other liberals who don't want them either. Keep in mind that the most vocal opponents to congestion pricing aren't exactly conservatives. This is about common sense and understand what the real impact is. Nevertheless, one of the main reasons I voted for Hillary was more than just wanting a woman president, but because I wanted someone who knew what they were doing once they were president, and The Donald isn't that person, which makes me glad I didn't vote for him. In other words, I can always say this, "Don't look at me, I voted for Hillary." As for Al Gore, I do support what he is for and even have some of his books including "The Earth in Balance, and his more recent one, "The Assault on Reason' on finding both very interesting to read.

Nov. 29, 2017, 5:27 pm

Rufus Leaking from BH says:

And Hillary justifies Hamas. Yup, she knows what she is doing alright, playing naive members of the chosen for their money while dealing against their interests.

Nov. 30, 2017, 12:28 pm

Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville, NY says:

I find that interesting because I have heard that she was very pro-Israel throughout her political career. As a matter of fact, the idea of moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was first proposed when she was serving in the US Senate. She even mentioned the terrorist attacks during the primary debates when confronting Bernie Sanders. If you don't think that she is pro-Israel, then I suggest you read what her views on her book, Hard Choices, to see where she really stands. Let's not forget that she is commended by AIPAC, not condemned by them either, plus they see her as someone who can be trusted on Israel.

Nov. 30, 2017, 5:16 pm

Rufus Leaking from BH says:

And there in is the dupe that is Tal.

Nov. 30, 2017, 6:05 pm

Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville, NY says:

Guys, I rezent the personal attacks, and please stop hamasing me. I feel like Elizabeth facing down the Spanish Armada. You streetsblogger zealouts are out of line when you attack me for living in my Mother's basement. So what if I basically spoon off of my folks? Try driving a car in Brooklyn like I do and you would see why I have little support for the lazy zealout bikers that refuse to pay for the streets like motorists pay for the cars. Besides, if Joe Biden was going to be president, he would have already done so b/c he is way to old and b/c Donald Trump is the healthiest president in history.

Jan. 13, 11:02 pm

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